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A different 'cold case': Frozen solid, she was nearly declared dead. Then, she was given a chance to live

On Dec. 20, 1990, Jean Vig, formerly Jean Hilliard, 19-year-old, was found frozen outside a rural Minnesota home with an unmeasurable temperature and faint gurgling breaths, hospital staff said.
In a cold snap with temperatures below 22 degrees Fahrenheit, Jean Vig slid off the road and walked toward a friend, leaving snow tracks showing she crawled the last feet after falling four times and collapsed on Wally Nelson's doorstep.
She spent roughly six to seven hours passed out in sub-zero conditions, breathing at one to two per minute, and hospital staff used water-based heating pads to warm her until she responded.
Doctors warned she might need amputations, but Vig recovered without lasting injury as newspapers from Fargo to California covered her story and prayer groups formed around her recovery.
Vig went on to live a relatively normal life, raised three daughters in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, and still fields questions about the Dec. 20 incident, especially around Christmas.

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A different 'cold case': Frozen solid, she was nearly declared dead. Then, she was given a chance to live

LENGBY, Minn. — Wally Nelson opened his front door on the morning of Dec. 20, 1990 and saw a 19-year-old woman lying in the snow, just feet from his home. “Her face was ghost-like,” Nelson told The Associated Press in 1990. “I figured she was dead.” Nelson recognized the young woman: Jean Hilliard, a family friend. Unbeknownst to Nelson, her vehicle veered into the ditch, miles away. "I had my parents' car, and I was just upset that I'd slid off…

6 days ago·Fargo, United States

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